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Sanitising the Iraq War

As the Chilcot enquiry is finally published, the media circus begins. Tony Blair will get a rough ride. The media have already gone for him. His legacy is in tatters, Iraq has been a failure, and he will never be forgiven by the public. Indeed, his political party is now led by one of his arch opponents as a direct result of Iraq.

But in reality it remains sanitised. The war you don’t see, the occupation that has gone unreported, is too difficult for sections of the Western press and the vast majority of the political class to stomach. They cannot accept that the UK and the U.S. has committed the most heinous acts in Iraq. It rocks the possibility of their moral superiority, and it makes it more difficult to have a ‘balanced debate’ on the issue, as Tony Blair plays the media circuit in the weeks and months running up to Chilcot. Today it must come to the surface.

The war you don’t see, the occupation that has gone unreported, is too difficult for sections of the Western press and the vast majority of the political class to stomach. They cannot accept that the UK and the U.S. has committed the most heinous acts in Iraq. It rocks the possibility of their moral superiority, and it makes it more difficult to have a ‘balanced debate’ on the issue, as Tony Blair plays the media circuit in the weeks and months running up to Chilcot. Today it must come to the surface.

The scale, depth and method of the occupation of Iraq is a story untold in the public mind. Now it is necessary that everyone clearly understands be context for the rage against Blair and Bush domestically, and consequently the UK and the U.S. across the Middle East. The lies about WMD and the claims of a 45 minute cataclysm are important. Those are deliberate lies which furnished the case for the war and are important. They opened the gates of carnage for a whole population. What follows will not be easy to read. But the US and the UK has to face up to its crimes for without justice there will be no peace.

Much of what unfolds is committed by the U.S. Armed Forces given their much larger ground force and by the intelligence services. The key that Blair and the British State provided was the geopolitical cover to allow the invasion and occupation to take place. The real story of the occupation would never reach CentCom, the U.S. press centre set up in the Green Zone.

It is important not to start with the range of illegal weapons that were used, but with the methodology of the occupation. Like all oppressor occupations, it was based on subjugation and humiliation. In addition, far from building civil society, it was to be hollowed out, and tensions between groups fomented. Every aspect of Iraqi society was to be torn asunder – deliberately.

We talk about the oil deals that went on with Haliburton, what we don’t know about is the fact that Iraqi seeds were privatised and sold off to international agri-business. This was part of a process of disrupting a centuries old farming method and is outlined in Order 81 established by the ‘Coalition Provisional Authority’ in 2004 (1). Farmers were to bear a considerable amount of occupation malice.

In the early days of the occupation – to make sure they knew who was boss – the U.S. Army conducted a planned operation of bulldozing Iraqi crops including dates, oranges and lemons. This was part of a collective punishment of farmers who the US and UK claimed were hiding anti-occupation guerrilla fighters.

As they destroyed the crops, they played jazz music to show how little they cared. One farmer said: “They made a sort of joke against us by playing jazz music while they were cutting down the trees.” Sheikh Hussein Ali Saleh al-Jabouri was a member of a delegation that went to the nearby US base to ask for compensation for the loss of the fruit trees. He said US officers described what had happened as “a punishment of local people because ‘you know who is in the resistance and do not tell us’.” (2)

Collective punishment and brutalising humiliation was to become world news when it became clear the extent to which torture was being committed in US run jails. The inhabitants of these jails would very often be taken from their homes, without reason or recourse (3). Records were barely kept, so family members were left on abject horror in the aftermath of their home being raided, as they had no idea what jail their loved one (usually a father, brother or son) had been taken to. But the the extent of the torture is classified. Think about what we already know, and what is being classified and consider the extent of the terror this inflicted on Iraqi society.

What you will never hear being discussed is ‘Copper Green’ – one of several names for a U.S. Black ops program, formed with the direct approval of the then Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld, who told special access members to “Grab whom you must. Do what you want.” The program designed physical coercion and sexual humiliation techniques for use against Muslim men specifically. This was the precursor to the systematic torture of Iraqis (4).

You may not be aware that Iraqi academics were systematically assassinated – hundreds of them (5). By April 2004 the Iraqi Association of University Teachers (AUT) reported that 250 academics had been killed. By the end of 2006, according to The Independent, over 470 academics had been killed. The Guardian reporter that about 500 academics were killed just from the Universities of Baghdad and Basra alone. We don’t know who murdered these people, but we do know that they were professional hits. Whatever the case, the occupation forces were too busy securing oil fields to set up protection for important elements of Iraq civil society (6) There are now calls for an investigation given that we now know via WikiLeaks that innocent civilians were targeted for assassination (7).

Illegal munitions were used over civilian population centres. Infamously White Phosperous was used over Fallujah. White phosphorus is fat-soluble and burns spontaneously on contact with the air. According to globalsecurity.org:

“The burns usually are multiple, deep, and variable in size. The solid in the eye produces severe injury. The particles continue to burn unless deprived of atmospheric oxygen… If service members are hit by pieces of white phosphorus, it could burn right down to the bone.” As it oxidises, it produces smoke composed of phosphorus pentoxide. According to the standard US industrial safety sheet, the smoke “releases heat on contact with moisture and will burn mucous surfaces… Contact… can cause severe eye burns and permanent damage (8) .”

In addition to suffering from use of such weaponry, such was the scale of the destruction in Fallujah that American forces dumped the bodies of dead Iraqis into the Euphrates river and in football stadiums (9).

“The burns usually are multiple, deep, and variable in size. The solid in the eye produces severe injury. The particles continue to burn unless deprived of atmospheric oxygen… If service members are hit by pieces of white phosphorus, it could burn right down to the bone.” As it oxidises, it produces smoke composed of phosphorus pentoxide. According to the standard US industrial safety sheet, the smoke “releases heat on contact with moisture and will burn mucous surfaces… Contact… can cause severe eye burns and permanent damage (8) .”

The number of civilians killed ranges from The Lancets 650,000 figure (10) up to a million (11). By 16 February 2007, António Guterres, the United Nations High Commissioner for refugees said that the external refugee number fleeing the war reached 2 million and that within Iraq there are an estimated 1.7 million internally displaced people. It is now thought to be as much as double that number. Civilians are suffering the use of depleted uranium tipped shells, and with chaos ending around them – ISIS have sought to move in, adding to the carnage. Millions of people’s lives lie in ruins. The numbers are incomprehensible. The outcome for Iraqis is utterly dire. Not so the oil corporations, and not so for life on the permanent US bases.

While buildings lie in ruins and with water and electricity in short supply, the Americans (again we need to reinforce the door opened by Blair and Britain) – set about building what would be known locally as ‘George W Palace.’ On the Baghdad sky line the new U.S. Embassy houses thousands of offices for up to 8000 staff, has a cinema, restaurants, an Olympic sized swimming pool and a plush function centre. It is so large it is visible from space. It is larger than the Vatican City. It is a monument to destruction, imperial arrogance and oppression.

The human cost is devastating. The lies and propaganda deployed for this war unraveled before the first shot was fired. Now the build up to war has been categorically demolished by the Chilcot enquiry. As well as the unthinkable toll suffered by Iraqis, US and UK soldiers went to their death. Today many of their families have spoke out against the war, and against Blair. Many soldiers have come back so disturbed by what they have seen they are now trenchant anti-war campaigners. The full horror of what Blair unleashed will never be truly understood in the West. And, internationally the full consequences of this war are still to be felt. Today Blair is finished, and the process around trying him for war crimes will begin. As the sister of a soldier killed in Iraq said in the press conference that followed Chilcot: “There is one terrorist in this world and his name is Tony Blair.”

Blair made it possible for the U.S. to go to war. Together they unleashed hell on a whole population; families, young couples starting their lives, the elderly, children, the farmer and the academic. They did so based on a consciously built framework of lies to build anglo-American power in the region. And for that it is not just Blair who must be held to account. Every MP, every agitator for this war – from Jim Murphy to David Aaronovitch – will be judged by history in the most scathing terms. Every MP who voted for this war is now formally morally finished. British imperialism now on decline must now end.

Today is the end of Chilcot and the cementing in officialdom of the arguments the anti-war movement have made for 14 years. But it is also just the start. We must now move quickly to begin legal proceedings that see Blair – and be rest – lined up in The Hague for war-crimes tribunals.

And then there are the mercenaries. Who “operate” in a legal limbo land”.
I recall a report intimating around 3,000 private contractors were to be deployed to
protect the U.S. Embassy in Iraq. That’s the sort of contract that was at the upper end of the scale in renaissance Italy.Clearly the spirit of Sir John Hawkwood, purveyor of security , or insecurity, to 15th century popes is alive and well in the State Department.

Where was our elected MPs hardly a voice raised either from the left or the right,everybody that had one iota of knowledge knew that Iraq posed no threat ffs,intelligence services what a laugh,what about the 3trillion dollars yes trillion un-accounted for in the Iraq conflict,the inquiry about this was quashed,what about the Israeli involvement not only in Iraq but Syria/Lebanon yet we still have fools in this country spouting the Putin/Russian threat,the USA/Israel alliance with the GB/EU poodles are the biggest threat to mankind,the USA involved in 85 countries world wide,Breedlove the American general ex head of NATO pushing for nuclear war with Russia/China yet we swallow the garbage served up to us by the establishment,as soon as anyone criticises Israel they are jumped on from a great height,anybody ever wonder why,part of it is Mossad has the dirt on most if not all of them.I hope the fcuking unionists do not forget Broonie/Darlings part in this debachle.

I think we do know the opposing voices of the time, as well as the millions around the country protesting this war, but of course, they were called spineless. The media played a hellish role in beating the drums too.

You are right of course about Russia. Today, Leadsom, shouting Russia bad, with no detail. Yet the build up on the coastline is USA and NATO, pretending they are doing exercises, as they drive in long convoys of armoured vehicles along Russian borders.

The UK just can’t let go of their dreams of Empire, and trailing around after USA misadventures, but then it’s great trade for British Arms trade, despite the UN finding these arms are killing Yemeni civilians.

Iraq is the blueprint for Syria,Libya, who now thinks we are engaged in anything noble in any of those countries?

USA gave the finger to Chilcot, saying they will not ‘re-examine any role of Bush.

We know what the answer is, and at the very least it won’t be our government, our taxes funding this murder.

I am shocked, enraged, and horrified. But utterly un-surprised. Chilcot is a traitor, firstly to the truth, secondly to the people, and thirdly to the Law. Not even a rat, just a mouse.The whole, disgusting, ritual whitewash, when the UK Elite are caught behaving like the darkest days of the British Empire, as if nothing has happened in the last 100 years, is beyond words, beyond pity, beyond absolute basic decency. We are ruled by war criminals. Chilcot, is in international law, a criminal accessory to these crimes, which were mass murder. Since 911, four million Muslims have been killed. Eight million have been turned into refugees. nearly a hundred thousand prisoners have been “Renditioned”, half of whom are gone, missing, without trace. As in the Nazi-camps, a policy of “Night and fog”, of mass torture, followed by mass murder. thousands of bodies burned, in incinerators, or dumped in unmarked graves. The horror, the horror. I am beyond rage. Now, must begin, the rough and painful path to justice. Chilcot must be impeached. Jail is almost too good for him. Blair, I think, has to be pursued literally to the ends of the Earth. Perhaps Argentina, which has given sanctuary to so many like him, will take him in. But even there, He must be pursued. I hope Blair awakes screaming, in the night, from nightmares from hell. But psychopaths never grieve, never feel, never have remorse. Justice must come, for Blair, by any means possible. Let him be haunted, by the ghosts of Nuremburg.

Just ask yourself who benefits from this?1 Israel by fracturing any and every opposing regional power that is a threat,Israel controls/dictates US senate/policy internal/external,2 as usual the bankers/financiers,3 the military industrial complex.How would it be received if we were to go to war ON POVERTY in any/all of these regions,spending trillions on health/education/clean water/infrastructure,why can,t we send in our army to HELP these peoples,we might not have the refugee problems that we all moan about,ffs I must have forgot my meds.

Remember, Saddams repeated aggression of neighbourring states, invasion of Kuwait and Genocide of the kurds. He also harboured terrorist organistaions- these didnt help the cause. At the same time, I dont here the condemnation of IS who want to eradicate the presence of all Persian, Arabic and European countries. I understand your vitriol, the UK and the U.S. has committed heinous acts in Iraq but so has the IS- where is the condemnation. Saddam was a fascist dictator and he played hardball.

I think you should re watch Robin Cook’s resignation speech in the House of Commons……..yes Saddam was a thug but he had been contained and was not a threat.
I would also recommend Peter Francopan’s The Silk Roads……to see the full extend of British and US perfidy and sheer incompetence re this region.
Thanks
John Page

John, I understand the point you’re trying to make but you can’t down play violations of human rights, secret police, torture, mass murder, rape, deportations, forced disappearances, assassinations and chemical warfare for political advantage here by saying it was contained. What does contained mean? That the pershmerga fighters and their people were to be left to the sociopathic whims of a fascistic dictator. I’ve seen many people ready to defend Orwell for denfending the left in the war but fail to ever come out on ther side of the Kurds.

Duncan the attacks by Saddam on its neighbours where proxy wars at the behest of the Americans.
His invasion of Kuwaiti oil fields was to recoup costs that Kuwait said it would cover, again for these proxy wars. Kuwait was the excuse for GW1 but he had been told explicitly by the US that they had no interest in this ‘regional’ conflict. Until the lies used to create that war were broadcast on US TV.

Yes he was a dictator, chosen and placed by the CIA (like many in South America), who did commit crimes, but the iron grip the US had over Iraq between the wars, where again thousands of civilians died, kept his major crimes in check.

Which terrorist organisations was he harbouring specifically? Seriously, if you say Al Q, I’ll think your just trolling.

Duncan
You “understand the point I was trying to make”…….I hope you didn’t mean to be as patronising and insulting as you have come across.
Did you rewatch Robin Cook’s speech? Did you read The Silk Roads?
I think it is a good idea to listen and make up one’s own mind.
You give me the impression of someone who has learned a spin line and too hurriedly trots it out as if mechanically.
All the things you accuse SH of seem also to have been done by the US apart from the chemical attacks…….although had you read Francopan’s book you would see that the US were content with his chemical weapons during the war with Iran.
I am left with the impression that you are a New Labour supporter/advocate/apologist. Am I correct?
Thank you.
John Page

Duncan
I have no problem with you having a different point of view……..as long as it is your view………and not a party line.
I can get rehashed views any time from following the MSM. I choose to read Bella’s articles to learn and reflect and pick up books, resources, films to expand my understanding.
I am deeply unimpressed by anyone trotting out a party line…….are you involved with Labour?
Thank you
John Page

100% the Iraq war had nothing to do with WMDs but it was conceived out of one of mankinds oldest emotions REVENGE, for you see Sadam Hussain had come up with the worlds most sofisticated weapon, a suicide bomber with a financial incentive. Sounds like an oxymoron, not really when you consider the martyr was flying off to the arms of multiple virgins comforted by the thought that his family would be receiving generous compensation from Sadam for their sad loss. If Israel had not mobilised the Jewish control it has over the American congress then for sure Israel would eventually have run out of citizens before Sadam ran out of willing martyrs. The coalition of the willing was an easy fix first Bush then an egotistical Blair,followed by a sycophantic Australian PM John Howard. All of these men are murderers and guilty of crimes against humanity and should long ago have been judged and sentenced in the Hague. The Chilcot report, a complete description of the crime, devoid of a perpetrator to serve some time.
The final cop out that unfortunately the Iraq war was based on the acceptance of inaccurate intelligence is patently wrong .The intelligence was perfect to the task, conceived and fabricated to align with a pre determined attack on a sovereign nation that presented no threat to any of the combatants. Blair said”my decision to go to war was made in good faith” BULLSHIT his decision to go to war was made for him he only had to follow the script handed to him by G W Bush on behalf of the Israelis, job done. It’s appropriate to mention Mossads motto here. By way of deception, thou shall do war.
And to finish on a trivia question, just where exactly in Israel did Israel carry out it’s nuclear testing program?
Mossads motto is very appropriate for the worlds most devious,vindictive, vengeful people.

There is nothing ani-semitic Duncan,they condemn themselves by their actions in Palestine by their genocide of the Palestinians,they receive 3trillionyear from the USA they control the senators/senate,they control the financial institutions/media and use it for the propagation of a greater Israel.Everyone and their granny jumps from a height if the Palestinian viewpoint is put forward but do not ffs criticise Israel.Duncan get a hold of “Family of Secrets” by Russ Baker it might give you a bit of insight into the corrupt entity that the USA is,what about another dictator Gaddafi whos people had at least some quality of life,he posed a threat to the petrodollar standard and had to go after shaking hands with good friend Tony,leaving another country that is hell on earth,does anyone ever ask the likes of Blah Blah/bush what gives you the right to sally forth into other countries and impose your/our will would we entertain that no way,they have killed more innocent people than all the dictators put to-gether,they should be shot.

What amazes me is that so many people are genuinely shocked and surprised at these revelations. Anyone who still clings to the old lie that we are “the good guys” and behave in a civilized noble way need to get a grip- the evidence of how the British Empire conquered nations and maltreated the “locals” and robbed their resources is well documented. The public in general seem to have real difficulty in “joining the dots”. This week we commemorated the hideous Battle of the Somme- another disaster where imperialism and British (English) superiority saw Great Britain dragged into an unnecessary war- sending a generation of ill prepared poorly equipped boys following outdated tactics to a hell on earth the truth of which was hidden from the public. Propoganda spewed forth by the press Barons and most shamefully by religious leaders. Thousands of broken men returned only to be rejected by the government and society. How many commentators made the link between that cataclysmic event and the stupidity of Brexit and a return to the “Splendid Isolation” of 1914? Can you imagine if a Chilcot enquiry had been conducted following the Somme or at the end of the “Great” war? Lloyd George, Asquith and Churchill tried as war criminals? So what have we learned over the last century of political intrigue and conflict? Not very much is the honest answer. Scandals come and go, “lessons learned- never to be repeated”. So there will be lots of hot air, talking heads on TV until the next big news story comes along and all is forgotten. Guess what- history repeats, given a generation or two and it will probably happen again- only the names will be changed, or in some cases not.

Nothing new here; it was all written and read at the time. Thousands marched, Robin Cook spoke, but nothing could stop the attack. BUT think of the Power behind this; the Power to declare unwanted war, the Power to swing the media behind the war and smother the violent rape of Iraq, the Power to delay this Enquiry for a ridiculous seven years; and, in a few months, the Power to fade the whole episode with the anodyne quasi report.
Cui bono? only Israel.

Let’s hope labour activists in Scotland who have been in denial for 13 years face the facts. They weren’t duped, they knew they were being lied to by bliar, but went along with it and put party above country and even more disturbing, put party above their own conscious.

What is really disgraceful is the behaviour of those on the right of the Labour Party who have organised a coup against Corbyn in order to remove a Labour leader who was going to label Blair a war criminal. I’m absolutely convinced that the timing of the coup was related to the publication of Chilcot. Shame on all those New Labour MPs, journalists and academics like Gerry Hassan who cheered them on.

I also thought Galloway was brilliant on Question Time last night even though I disagreed profoundly with him on both referendums. Yet, when it comes to Iraq there is no one better equipped than Galloway to destroy the Blairites. The argument that Blair could be tried for gross misconduct in public office is very interesting indeed.

Hi Duncan,if that is your real name, and I doubt you have ever voted SNP. A little bit of racisim so you really know what it look like. Our race is the master race, we are divine gods on the planet. We are as different from the inferior races as they are from insects, in fact compared to our race other races are beasts and animals cattle at best, other races are considered as human excretment. Our destiny is to rule over the inferior races our earthly kingdom will be ruled by our leaders with a rod of iron, the masses will lick our feet and serve us as our slaves.
Menachem Begin
Gentiles only exist to serve Jews as slaves Goyim were only born to serve us. Without that they have no place in the world only to serve the people of Israel. Remember my children that all the earth must belong to us Jews and the Gentiles being mere excremental of animals must possess nothing.
Mayer Rothchild on his deathbed 1812
Is that all racist enough for you Duncan?might go a long way to explaining why they have been rejected by all other people’s for all of their existence.

Oz scot so true so very disturbingly true,it is very very difficult to get others to understand what the real truth is,even in my own family they tell me I don,t want to hear about it?ffs.Only when something terrible happens do they sit up and take notice a la “Saville” I had been prattling on about reading about him years before the expose,this is the big problem getting the truth out.Just look at our elected leaders latest folly the NATO excersises on the border of Russia,this at the behest of the USA who are almost to a man complete and utter nutters,yet we blindly follow the USA/ISRAEL driven agendas.Get a read on who the real Jews/Israelis are,they are Khazars from the northern Turkey area,they are evil beyond comprehension.There is rumours that Mossad was involved in the Elm Tree Cottage/Dolphin Square episodes,that they have the dirt on so many of our public servants and use blackmail for their own ends,the same applies in the USA where allied with the dirt they have mountains of money to bribe.They have to be exposed for what they are at every turn.

Thanks John for your reply. I will not be called a racist without historical, logical, and truthful response. I believe I am a typical Scot, a social warrior, a despiser of injustice which I will oppose wherever it occurs. Duncan is a Scottish name I suspect that’s why it was chosen for effect. I await Duncan’s ? reply let’s see how erudite he is defending his previous observations. If he wants to play mental chess with me I will let him replace the first four pieces he loses.

Some things never change, not least the “no fault” narrative of the elite coterie after the event. Whilst it is too late to prosecute the elite/coterie of criminals behind WWI and other wars, Iraq is a different story.

Avoid all wars, any leader(s) who want to go to war, must place themselves or their offspring on the front line.

Can you see bliar or straw or brown happy with that.

I have felt remorse. I can not even begin to image the guilt bliar, et al experience, it must impact every second of their existence.

Last week’s bomb in Baghdad, killing over 280 people, many children can be traced back to bliar’s action, imagine living with that?

95% of Iraqis must look back at Saddam with a measure of wonderment on how he kept the peace and the country together. Yes he was a brut, but he had the country under control, now look at it.

If the deck of cards produced by the US to display leading pre war Iraqi politicians and military were produced for the western leaders, bliar and bush are obvious, wonder where falconer and campbell would feature as they do the rounds of tv stations sticking up for their old mate?

Spot on Tam why oh why does no one ever ask any of them how many close family ever have been on active service and I mean “active” service,I read sometime ago that the senate members had a negligible percentage involved.

Although I’ve always been opposed to the Iraq War (and marched against it at the time), I don’t accept that it was all the fault of Tony Blair.

Let’s not forget that the invasion was enthusiastically supported by the very people who are currently running the country – Ian Duncan Smith, Boris Johnson, Oliver Letwin, Bill Cash, Chris Grayling, etc. Why not prosecute them for war crimes, too?

And before anyone says that these men and women were deceived by Tony Blair I’d say that if they were so dim-witted and gullible to be taken in by one man, by definition they’ve proved themselves unfit for office.